Further advances in Technology Assisted Review (TAR)

1 Introduction Technology Assisted Review (TAR), or predictive coding, is an alternative to the traditional manual review of documents.

It involves:

The manual review by senior members of a legal team of a small subset of documents to identify whether they belong to certain categories (relevant, not relevant, privileged, etc.) Computer analysis to apply the characteristics of the subset to the full population of documents to group them into the same categories. The resulting document set is consistently categorised using a process which is both auditable and repeatable. Computer Assisted Review (CAR) and Technology Assisted Review (TAR) are interchangeable terms.

More information on TAR is in our publications (TAR and CAR are interchangeable terms) March 2016 - Forensic Matters: Technology assisted momentum is building A recent English Case has further paved the way for the use of Technology Assisted Review ('TAR') in Common Law Jurisdictions. In this article we comment on the ten factors seen as pivotal in making this decision. June 2015 - Forensic Matters: Predicting the future of electronic discovery Adoption of Technology Assisted Review to increase worldwide following decision by the Irish High Court. In this article, we discuss the landmark decision made by the Irish High Court, which may pave the way for the use of TAR in Australia. February 2013 - Forensics Matters: Death, taxes and computer assisted review Has the time come for a radical change in how eDiscovery is undertaken? When we consider all of the events that are taking place in courts the world over, perhaps computer assisted review (CAR), which includes predictive coding, should be adopted as best practice, especially in cases involving large amounts of electronically sourced information (ESI). July 2012 - Forensics Matters: Is Predictive coding the electronic discovery 'Magic Bullet'? Predictive coding is the emerging tool of choice in the fight against the escalating size and related cost of managing and disclosing electronically stored information ('ESI'). In this article, we consider how some recent cases involving predictive coding may affect the future of eDiscovery.

To some it is bewildering that TAR has not been more widely adopted. Cynics might suggest that lawyers have fees to lose. But we believe it's not as simple as that. The complex statistics involved in some of the TAR protocols used, together with a natural level of inertia and fear of the unknown, have...